happy new year

So a note as the year, the famous long awaited 2012, comes to an end.

The new year is a curious fiction, but one I like.  I like all the new years, all the turnings, all the markings. 

It has been the sweetest year.  The weather has been sweet -- a sweet spring, a not too hot summer, water all year, a beautiful fall.  Maybe not the best hay year.  And right at this moment I'm sick of cold and mud but that's normal fluctuation.  It was a sweet year in that I got to ride a lot, and ride some under instruction.  I experienced a whole 'nother level of natural horsemanship.  Whole 'nother.

I wasn't the best homesteader, but the family took up most of that slack, and learned a lot in that process for themselves I think.

I've been thinking lately about the idea of ideas, and how in trying to talk and even think about ideas you have to use examples and yet what you are really talking about is ideas.  Like the idea of money, or the idea of morality, or the idea of how money relates to the idea of morality.  Like the idea of passion, or the idea of right livelihood, or the idea of how passion relates to the idea of right livelihood.  Like the idea of . . . love.

We have to think about ideas, and big ideas are good.  We have to live our lives, and living small is good.  There can be a good bit of hostility to both thinking and living in ideals.  To semi-paraphrase, semi-quote the arch-druid, "transitioning to a lifestyle that’s actually sustainable involves giving up many of the comforts, perks, and privileges central to the psychology and identity of people in modern industrial societies. The thought of taking any action that might result in being mistaken for the poor is something most Americans in particular can’t bear to contemplate — even when those same Americans recognize on some level that sooner or later, like it or not, they’re going to end up poor anyway."

So I don't write so much anymore.  But I write about ideas and about my personal experiences and observations.  If you have a problem with that, and you know me IRL, why don't you just freaking say so to my face.  Or better yet, shut the heck up.

Happy new year.  May it be a good one, a peaceful one, a brave one, a fruitful one.